Key impact - Flooding
Recent examples
Flooding in parts of the UK dominated the news during the summer of 2007. Although we can't blame the floods directly on climate change, we are likely to see more intense and frequent rainstorms.
Intense rainfall over the weekend of 21/22 July caused the worst flooding in 60 years over parts of middle and southern England. Memorable images include Tewkesbury Cathedral entirely surrounded by water, and cars stranded in flooded high streets. Hundreds of people had to be airlifted to safety, and the army was called in to distribute aid. A water treatment plant was flooded, leaving 140,000 people without fresh water supplies for a week. Insurers received 60,000 claims as a result of the summer floods.
The cost of the clean-up and reinstatement operations has been estimated at between £3 billion and £3.5 billion.
The average cost of home insurance claims after the floods was £50,000. The damage isn't just financial: it can take between three and six months for families to be able to move back into their homes, and may take over a year. Contamination with sewage makes the clean-up even more difficult, as the dirty water may carry infections.
Key points
- Ten per cent of the three regions area is classified as floodplain
- Floods can also be caused by sewers and storm drains that can't cope with an increased volume of water from intense storms. If there's nowhere for the rain to drain away to, it will lie on the surface, causing flash flooding
- Where gardens have been replaced with tarmac, rainwater cannot soak into the ground. Instead, it runs across the surface and into drains. Heavy rain can overwhelm the drain system, leading to flooding
- New housing developments on floodplains can increase the flood risk for nearby buildings, if they do not incorporate runoff or surface-water management capacities. Eg. green space and SUDS
